原文作者 Joe Dyer
发布于 MTGGoldfish
多年以来，Death and Taxes 死税套牌经历了许多次调整，也收获一些新牌。这是一个取决于环境的套牌，因此在构组上不会一成不变，而是会根据环境的变化进行调整。有人说，死税套牌强不强很大一部分在套牌构组阶段就已经被确定，这么看来死税套牌很简单，但实际并非易事。配地、曲线规划和各种单卡选择上都非常复杂，要求牌手对套牌和环境有极深的理解，我们每一次看到的主流组法都是“死税社群”中许多优秀玩家一起精心研究出来的
近段时间死税复苏，这很大归功于 John Ryan Hamilton（MO id：xJCloud），这位牌手长期以来一直在死税套牌开发的最前沿。他从2020年12月起就一直坚持约力昂版本的死税，写过一篇文章讲解为什么要将死税套牌扩张至80张
https://minmaxblog.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-sky-noodle
文章中很多内容仍在今天适用，并且随着约力昂版本逐渐成为主流而被广泛认可。在上周末的 Legacy Showcase Challenge 上，24位死税参赛者中有22位都使用了约力昂版本
下面就让我们来看看死税大师 John Ryan Hamilton 的最新牌表吧
死税套牌的最大变化其实是从MH2收获了卡尔札之完化体与幽寂，两者都是对死税的巨大补强。卡尔札之完化体提供了更强的终结手段，对于大部分套牌来说都更难处理。幽寂是个泛用的强牌，但在死税套牌里更加灵活，最重要的是可以被侍卫队征召员找出来约力昂版本的死税本质上是侍卫队征召员套牌。征召员很好地将整套牌黏合起来，并让死税能够应对各种不同的情况。以约力昂为行侣后，套牌构组更加灵活，扩大牌库容量后就能有应对某种情况更多的解答，而不必纠结于某些单卡的选择（比如60张版本必须在卡尔札之完化体和炽寒剑之间选择一个，而80张版本可以全都要）。约力昂本身也很强，首先是个大飞机，还能云移场上的东西来重置它们或再次触发一些异能征召员工具箱加上牌库容量的增加，让套牌应对各种情况有更多的解答。例如，迷宫精怪对阵当前环境中的大量套牌（尤其是乌洛套牌）都很厉害，在这个版本中使用4张再加上4征召员就等于使用了8张，登场率大大提高。其他一些适用面狭窄的牌如圣所教长、英俊王子，只需带1张，就能有带了5张的效果灵活性+工具箱+强大的武具，约力昂版本绝对是现在死税玩家的最佳选择Twitch 主播 Anuraag Das 在上周末举办了一场免费水友赛，奖池$1200，双败淘汰制，有44人参加。下面是这场比赛的套牌分布情况
虽然在套牌种类中 Spell Combo（基于咒语的组合技套牌）占比最高，但死税是数量最多的套牌（Vial 精瓶类套牌中几乎全是死税，仅有一套鬼怪）。下面是比赛的八强套牌
点击表格内套牌名称即可进入小程序查看详情
套牌名称
|
最终排名 |
玩家ID |
| 约力昂死税 |
冠军 |
John Ryan Hamilton |
| 班特控制 |
亚军 |
Niv Shmuely |
| 红蓝“掘密师” |
四强 |
Bart Van Etten |
| 洁斯凯滞留 |
四强 |
Eli Tucker |
| 约力昂死税 |
八强 |
Jason Murray |
| 纯白奥札奇 |
八强 |
Lee Hung Nguyen |
| 地控 |
八强 |
Julien Daniel-Moliner |
| 苏勒台诱魔法阵 |
八强 |
Brent Traut |
约力昂死税在这场比赛中取得了很好的成绩，死税大师 John Ryan Hamilton（xJCloud）夺得冠军！
我们已经在前面讨论过了这套牌，很高兴看到 John 又一次取得佳绩亚军是使用了褪除武装的班特控制，主牌满编了4张虹彩终局上周六的挑战赛由于只有58人报名而被取消。周日的挑战赛是 Showcase Challenge，级别更高，有多达210人参加，下面是套牌分布情况（感谢 Legacy Data Collection Project 对比赛数据的收集和整理）
本场比赛中红蓝掘密师有非常高的占比，比排在第二的死税多出近一倍数量。下面是比赛的八强套牌
点击表格内套牌名称即可进入小程序查看详情
套牌名称
|
最终排名 |
玩家ID |
| 红蓝掘密师 |
冠军 |
nathansteuer |
| 鬼怪 |
亚军 |
Caedryn |
| 全能教诲 |
四强 |
Yamaro |
| 约力昂死税 |
四强 |
YawgmothPT |
| 红蓝“掘密师” |
八强 |
Alesha_ |
| 偷袭教诲 |
八强 |
KlashBack |
| 白绿深渊 |
八强 |
Didackith |
| 末日组合技 |
八强 |
sawatrix |
译注：这里还要恭喜国人 litianshuo 操控纯蓝卡恩回声取得了前32名的好成绩！
只使用了2掘密师的掘密师套牌？！空出的两个卡位使用了米斯拉的饰品，帮助达成躁狂。配地上使用了2蒸气喷发口，非常新颖有趣的组法
亚军是历史最悠久、也是最酷炫的薪传套牌——鬼怪。套牌操控者 Eli Goings 接受了我们的采访，聊了聊鬼怪在当前薪传环境的状况（译注：这部分我没有翻译，原文放到了文章末，基本可以当做一篇鬼怪攻略来阅读了）
四强还有一套全能教诲，最大的亮点是备牌带了2奇诡区域，我非常喜欢将这张牌用于长盘对局，效果强大
八强还有一套无掘密师的“掘密师套牌”。我们已经看到，掘密师套牌中掘密师的用量正在被削减，“掘密师是掘密师套牌中最差的单卡”这个笑话如今似乎成为现实
八强 - 白绿深渊（点击查看中文牌表）
再推荐八强的白绿深渊，这绝对是当前环境里最好的非蓝色套牌之一
来自国人 litianshuo 的纯蓝卡恩回声，是破船勇盗/娜尔施搭配重启一日的版本
点击查看挑战赛全部牌表
6胜 - 独行客（点击查看中文牌表）
这套非常有趣的80张独行客套牌取得了6-2的好成绩
First of all, Eli, thanks for joining us. Now, tell us where to find the Goblin King! I’m kidding. Tell us about yourself !
Hey Joe! Thanks for having me. I’m a soon-to-be graduate student, currently waiting to depart to my masters program in Glasgow, Scotland. I’m a student of ancient history and archeology, and love strategy games of all kinds. Magic’s been a part of my life since I learned how to read, and I’m extremely happy I’ve finally been able to spike such a good finish in a big event! I do somewhat regular Magic content on Twitch and on Patreon, though I’ve slowed down a bit lately because of preparing for my trip.
How long have you been playing Goblins, and what drew you to the deck?
I started building Goblins in 2016, and actually finished the deck around the start of 2017. I’ve been playing it more or less nonstop since then. A couple of things drew me to Goblins. I knew I wanted to try Legacy, and I really liked the look of the Aether Vial decks. My initial plan was to just build Goblins and then pivot into D&T with the Vials, Wastelands, and Ports, because D&T seemed stronger (but more expensive in the creature department). However, once I got Goblins together, I just couldn’t put it down. I eventually did have all of D&T, but never once actually registered it in an event because I loved Goblins too much. I find the play patterns of Goblins too dynamic to become bored of the deck. It offers insane replayability by its nature. You shift roles many times from matchup to matchup, or within the same games. I affectionately call it a combo-control-midrange-prison-aggro deck. It offers some of the experience of playing every Legacy macro-archetype.
How did you arrive at the list you played for this event? Are there any changes you’d make going forward to it?I arrived at my list by getting absolutely demolished the day before. I went 1-2 in Anuraag’s 1.2k event, and then went on a 2-9 losing streak in leagues, even losing conventionally good matchups like D&T. I played basically all day, testing all sorts of lists, as I really wanted to have a list I could be happy with for the Showcase. I had taken a week long break from MTGO already, so I was cramming as much as possible. All my losses taught me how exactly I could build my manabase to accommodate Masked Vandal, a card that has proven critical in the current metagame. Vandal solves so many problems, namely Kaldra Compleat and Urza's Saga. It also is incredible in plenty of other situations. I’ve sniped Sylvan Library, Valakut Explorations, Alurens, Vials, Omnisciences, Baleful Strix, the list goes on. I also arrived at a realization with regards to how Vial decks are being built in general. At this point, Yorion D&T is by far the most successful Vial deck, and I believe it achieves this by having 4x Recruiter (equivalent to Matron) and then using flicker effects to copy the Recruiter, giving the deck both consistency and flexibility. With Goblins, I was running into the issue where if my first copy of Matron wasn’t allowed the luxury of finding Ringleader, or my Ringleader didn’t find me another Matron, I would lose control of the game because I couldn’t effectively respond to what my opponent was doing, ending my ability to pivot to whatever role I needed to take in the moment. My solution to this was Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Kiki allows you to generate ridiculous value in a long game, and is weirdly resilient vs certain decks. As a five CMC creature, it dodges Fatal Push, Abrupt Decay, Prismatic Ending, and Skyclave Apparition. I also thought it was an elegant solution to Bant Miracles leaning heavily into Dress Down as a control card. Kiki makes Stifle effects look embarrassing. The Goblin Sharpshooter was another meta call. You can actually find my stream VOD not more than a week ago when I called Sharpshooter unplayable, and in a “normal” meta, I think it is. However, I really wanted more cards that generate value simply by sitting on board, turn after turn. Sharpshooter fits the bill, and in particular will dominate any boardstate against D&T. Given that there are very few Plague Engineers in the top 5-6 decks at the moment, I felt like I could take the risk of Sharpshooter over the 2nd copy of Pashalik Mons, which I normally prefer.
As far as changes, I would really like to fit a copy of Mogg Fanatic in the list somewhere. Having zero ways to clear a turn one Ragavan or Mother of Runes on the draw (outside of Pyrokinesis) is not a comfortable place to be. Fanatic has phenomenal utility in the deck (always going to the graveyard for Vandal, double triggering Sharpshooter, Pashalik, pumping Piledriver early, etc). I’m not quite sure what the cut would be though.
How do you feel about the current state of Legacy and also how Goblins fits into the current format?Legacy is quite narrow at the moment, which I’m not a fan of. There are clearly four very strong decks, and everything else is a good bit weaker than those decks (being UR Delver/tempo, Bant Miracles, Jeskai Saga, and Yorion D&T). Of the four, I think D&T is consistently underrated, and Jeskai is heavily overrated as it’s only very strong against other blue decks in my experience. Doomsday is worth mentioning as well, but the deck’s seemingly unsolvable Delver matchup really holds it back. I’ve been an advocate for banning Daze for awhile now, and I think the current results bear out how reasonable that is. Delver is consistently dominant in Legacy outside of small blips like the Breach era, but if you nerf Delver decks only, I would not be surprised to see Doomsday dominate the format. Daze hits both decks at once and reduces the play/draw importance in Legacy, which is pure incidental upside. The die roll feels way more important than it should right now.As far as Goblins goes, I’d say it’s benefiting from these top blue decks pushing out Goblins’ worst matchups, and allowing its better ones to flourish for the most part. I can’t recall losing once to Bant Miracles in the past month or two, and I feel like I’ve solved the D&T matchup for the time being. I feel favored against Jeskai Saga as well. I’ve done a good bit of 1 on 1 testing vs UR Delver with friends, and found it to be essentially a coinflip matchup. The die roll will have tremendous influence in the match, as resolving a Vial around a Daze when on the play is massive, and Ragavan goes from scary to a complete nonfactor when I’m on the play. If I ever get to resolve a Mogg War Marshal, I get to ignore Ragavan for the rest of the game. Murktide Regent is terrifying in game 1, but I’ve hedged for that with a whopping four Red Elemental Blast effects in my sideboard. Goblins is also really assisted right now by the more popular combo decks being Doomsday and Show and Tell variants. Since the printing of Muxus, I think I’m actively favored against S&S, and even more so with my current build because I have four Blasts, and two Vandals for Omniscience and Sneak Attack. Doomsday is frustrating to play against a lot of the time, but in the long run I’ve maintained a 50/50 or better record against it. Cavern Lackey into Muxus or Sling Gang can race anything but a turn 1 kill, and Goblins has just enough interaction between REB, Mindbreak Trap, Surgical Extraction, and Wasteland/Port to typically slow the Doomsday player down, or at least build a slower pile that might lose a sudden Sling Gang or Warchief + Piledriver kill.I’m a little concerned about the coming weeks for Goblins. D&T and Delver both have massive targets on their heads, and unfortunately for me, Goblins gets hit by many sideboard cards that people play for both of those decks. I’ve seen a lot of Hydroblasts lately, which is really obnoxious for me if I don’t have Cavern or Vial. All the cards that are good against Ragavan are also good against Goblin Lackey, and because of how popular Ragavan is, people are less likely to keep hands that just die to a turn one Lackey. I hope people continue to play Null Rod over other available hate for their D&T matches, Null Rod doesn’t really affect me that much on average.
Of the tier two decks, GW Depths is unquestionably the hardest to beat, and I’d qualify it as the most difficult matchup I’ve ever tried to solve with Goblins. At least with the turn one combo decks like Belcher or Oops All Spells you can stock the sideboard with haymakers to flip it. Very little works against Depths. Outside of that, I’m hoping to dodge stuff like TES, Reanimator, GB Depths, and Ruby Storm. I beat Ruby Storm in the Showcase 2-0, but I got insanely lucky game one, and then game two I just had the perfect hand of Lackey, Mindbreak Trap, Pyroblast, Pyrokinesis, Sling Gang, Cratermaker, Badlands. Every angle was covered aside from a turn one-two protected by Defense Grid.
Any awesome stories you’d like to share about this event? Any cool games or plays that stand out?
I’m really proud of how I navigated my match against BUG Stiflenaught. My biggest weakness as a player is not adapting well to decks I’ve never seen before. My opponent had Urza's Saga, Uro, and then four Dress Down (confusing with the Sagas), Stifles, and Dreadnaughts. Game One I looked absolutely the most dead. They had an active Uro, a Grist, two Urza's Sagas, Dress Down’d when I blocked Uro with my Piledriver, removing the protection from blue, and I was at 7 life to their 16, five cards in hand to my one. They even had a Life from the Loam going with the Sagas! However, that one card was Kiki Jiki that I had found off Matron, and I had a Matron and a Ringleader in play. My first Kiki activation on Ringleader was Stifled, but after going to 1 life from Uro, I managed to resolve a 2nd Kiki activation, this time on Matron fetching Muxus. Muxus hit Matron, Expert, Lackey, Sharpshooter, and Sling Gang, an absolute god-tier hit. The Expert killed the Grist, and the Matron fetched up my Pashalik. My opponent couldn’t push any damage through my massive wall of 1/1s, and they conceded to the oncoming deluge of damage from Sharpshooter + Sling Gang + Pashalik + Kiki on Sharpshooter that would easily deal 40+ damage by sacrificing my board.
Do you have any sweet Goblins tips for anyone new looking to pick up the deck?
I’ve done a lot of writing on my Patreon for sweet tips, but that stuff tends to come once you’ve gotten some reps in with the deck. I think my biggest core principles for Goblins are 1. Make sure your mana is good and 2. Don’t jam a bunch of 1x silver bullets just because you can. I played a whopping 17 red sources this weekend and I still lost in the finals because my game one seven had zero red sources or Vials, and so did my game two seven and six card hands. Being forced to mull to a medicore six and a medicore five is an easy way to lose a fine matchup. It is the biggest failrate point of the deck, aside from Ringleader whiffing. I also specifically did not play Cabal Therapy in my sideboard like I wanted to, because I found that Therapy on top of splashing green for Vandal is just undoable. As far as silver bullets go, I will say that I’m playing more of them right now than I typically do. I prefer two-three copies of lots of things, and then only three-four one-of Goblins for Matron. However, a lot of these one-ofs are actually like additional copies of similar cards in the deck. Kiki is like the fifth Matron/fourth Ringleader, Sharpshooter is like a 2nd Pashalik, Vandal is like a third Cratermaker that hits specific targets that Cratermaker can’t, Gempalm is like a fourth Munitions Expert, etc. You want to be Matron'ing for Ringleader a large portion of the time anyway. Don’t fall for getting too fancy. Respect your curve, make sure you play enough two drops. The easiest way for Goblins to lose is having hands that are all three+ CMC value creatures, then you just get tempo’d out by just about anything, even the control decks.
Thanks again for joining us! You are indeed the GOAT (Goblin of All Time) and I really appreciate your time. Drop some deets on social media below so people know where to find you.Thanks so much for having me!
